French

Song 21:365 is my version of Francis Cabrel’s Petite Marie, dating from 1977, and which became one of Cabrel’s most popular songs reaching #5 in the French charts and #8 in the Quebec charts. This song is also in my least popular (and least favourite) key – with only five other songs in B minor in my entire collection!

Today’s tune is Octobre, a beautiful song by Francis Cabrel taken from the 1994 album Samedi Soir Sur La Terre. To this day it’s Cabrel’s best-selling album, and the 2nd best-selling album in France of all time.

Today’s piece of music is from the soundtrack to the 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet had been planning to commission Michael Nyman to write the score for the film, but while driving with his production assistant he heard a CD of music by Yann Tiersen and immediately bought Tiersen’s entire back catalogue. Soon after Tiersen was commissioned for the soundtrack, using some existing music and some newly composed pieces.

Il Cielo In Una Stanza, or as I first heard it performed by Carla Bruni, Le Ciel Dans Une Chambre is a beautiful melody, and Bruni’s interpretation is perfect. Having researched the song a bit to post it today I’ve discovered that it was originally written in Italian by Gino Paoli and recorded by Italian singer Mina in 1960. However, the composer criticised the original Mina version when he heard Bruni’s version in 2010, claiming “Mina sings it the same way she would sing the phone book. I don’t know if she understands what she sings”. I hope I’ve played this a bit more musically than the piano equivalent of a phone book!

Today marks 7 years since I left my post in the education department of East Ayrshire Council to run Radio Lingua full time. I had been working evenings and weekends and then gradually went down to working 2.5 days at East Ayrshire and 2.5 days (or 4.5 days!!!) for Radio Lingua, but on 18th July 2008 I handed in my resignation and I haven’t looked back since! Don’t get me wrong: I loved working with colleagues from East Ayrshire and the other authorities involved in the Partners in Excellence project, but being my own boss and gradually building the business and the team has been a wonderful experience and here’s hoping for many more years!

The song I’ve chosen for today is Edith Piaf’s classic Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (literally, “no, I don’t regret anything” or “I have no regrets”). In addition to being one of the most famous French songs ever recorded, this song was also used extensively in the brilliant 2010 film Inception. The theme is based on a slowed-down version of the song, and the running time of the film, 2 hours 28 minutes (of mind-bending confusion!) makes reference to the length of the song when it was originally recorded at 2 minutes 28 seconds!

Bonne Fête Nationale à tous mes amis français! Today is the fête nationale in France and following a bit of research online about French songs relating to the 14th July I’ve come across this 19th century song which follows a romance from the first signs of love between a young girl and her beau, through to the birth of their baby and then the unfortunate events surrounding her being abandoned and subsequently sentenced to a term in prison as an unmarried mother. There are various versions of the song, some more tragic than the rest, but it’s a nice wee tune. For French speakers, there’s more information here.

Following yesterday’s attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, I changed what I was planning to play and thought this would be more suitable. It was written for the 1951 film of the same name which showed various intertwining events in the daily lives of Parisians. The song was later recorded by Édith Piaf. I’ve always loved way the song goes from minor to major and back to minor again. It seems to be particularly appropriate today. This piece is dedicated to all those affected by the atrocity #jesuischarlie